The Archaeology of Central Asia, c. 500 BC – AD 200: Alexander in Afghanistan and
Buddhas in Bactria
Instructor: Dr. Rachel Mairs
Course Description
Central Asia, which has in the past tended to be regarded as a frontier region of the worlds of the
Mediterranean, Near East, India and the Eurasian steppe, is increasingly coming to be studied as a
cultural and political entity in its own right. In the period from the latter half of the first millennium
BC to the early centuries of the common era it was an especially dynamic zone of cultural
interaction. Politically, the territories of modern Afghanistan and the former-Soviet Central Asian
Republics (and in particular Bactria, the basin of the upper river Oxus), became part of the
Achaemenid Persian Empire, were then conquered by Alexander the Great, and subsequently
became the centre of two powerful local states: under dynasties of Greek-named kings, descended
from Alexander’s military settlers, and then the Kushan Empire, founded by the descendants of
later immigrants from the north. There is a rich archaeological and historical record available from
this period, much of which has only relatively recently become accessible to scholars.
*This schedule is provisional! Further details will be given in class.*
All readings will be posted on the course Wiki as PDFs, and anything in a language other than
English will be accompanied by a translation.
September
Topic 1: Historical Overview and the Sources.
Wednesday 7th
First class: no reading
Friday 9th
For an overview of the historical periods covered in this course, you should aim to read these
chapters within the first week or so:
Harmatta, J., B. N. Puri and G. F. Etemadi eds. (1994) History of the Civilizations of Central
Asia. Vol. 2, The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D.
250. Paris: UNESCO. Chapter 3: ‘Alexander and his Successors in Central Asia’; Chapter 4:
‘The Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia’.
Monday 12th
Both of these articles consist mostly of pictures…
Lecuyot, G. and O. Ishizawa (2006) "NHK, Taisei, CNRS: a Franco-Japanese collaboration
for the 3D Reconstruction of the Town of Aï Khanoum in Afghanistan," in Robert
Vergniquex and Caroline Delevoie (eds.), Virtual Retrospect 2005: Proceedings of the
conference Virtual Retrospect 2005 / Actes du colloque Virtual Retrospect 2005, 121-124.
Bordeaux: Editions Ausonius.
Lecuyot, G. (2007). Ai Khanoum Reconstructed. After Alexander: Central Asia Before Islam.
J. Cribb and G. Herrmann. Oxford, Oxford University Press for the British Academy: 155162.
Topic 2: Alexander the Great
Wednesday 14th
Friday 16th
Holt (1999), Alexander the Great and Bactria: Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.
Monday 19th
Optional readings (background for film excerpts to be shown in class):
Vasunia, P. (2010) "Alexander Sikandar," in Susan A. Stephens and Phiroze Vasunia (eds.),
Classics and National Cultures, 302-324. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kipling, Rudyard. (1888) The Man Who Would Be King.
Topic 3: War in Afghanistan
Wednesday 21st
Holt, F. L. (2005) Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan. (Hellenistic
Culture and Society 47.) Berkeley: University of California Press. Introduction.
Friday 23rd
Hopkirk, P. (1992) The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia. Kodansha
International. Introduction.
Monday 26th
Rashid, A. (2000) Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. New
Haven: Yale University Press. Introduction.
Topic 4: Numismatics
Wednesday 28th
Friday 30th
Holt, F. L. (1999) Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. (Hellenistic Culture
and Society XXXII.) Berkeley: University of California Press. Introduction.
October
Monday 3rd
No reading: in-class work with coin catalogues.
Topic 5: The Third Century BC
Wednesday 5th
Karttunen, K. (1997), India and the Hellenistic World. Chapter 6: ‘Greeks in the East’.
Friday 7th
Historical sources: Polybios 11.34, Justin 41.4 (collected in Appendix to Holt 1999
Thundering Zeus, above).
Monday 10th
Fall Weekend Holiday. No classes.
Wednesday 12th
Inscriptions 1: The Greek Asokan Edicts, texts collected and translated in the appendix to
Thapar, Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas – see below.
Inscriptions 2: Bernard, P., G.-J. Pinault and G. Rougemont (2004) "Deux nouvelles
inscriptions grecques de l'Asie Centrale," Journal des Savants 2004, 227-356. [English
translation of relevant portions will be circulated.]
Topic 6: Ai Khanoum
Friday 14th
Bernard, P. (1967) "Ai Khanoum on the Oxus: A Hellenistic City in Central Asia,"
Proceedings of the British Academy 53, 71-95.
Bernard, P. (1982) "An Ancient Greek City in Central Asia," Scientific American 246, 126135.
Monday 17th
Rapin, C. (1990) "Greeks in Afghanistan: Aï Khanum," in J.-P. Descœudres (ed.), Greek
Colonists and Native Populations, Proceedings of the First Australian Congress of Classical
Archaeology Held in Honour of Emeritus Professor A. D. Trendall, 329-342. Canberra;
Oxford: Humanities Research Centre; Clarendon Press.
Wednesday 19th
No set reading (recommended to read ahead for future classes).
Topic 7: Survey Archaeology in Central Asia
Friday 21st
Alcock, S. E., J. E. Gates and J. E. Rempel (2003) "Reading the Landscape: Survey
Archaeology and the Hellenistic Oikoumene," in A. Erskine (eds.), A Companion to the
Hellenistic World, 354-372. Oxford: Blackwell.
Banning, E. B. (1996) "Highlands and Lowlands: Problems and Survey Frameworks for Rural
Archaeology in the Near East," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 301,
25-45. [Esp. section on the eastern Bactria survey.]
Monday 24th
Stride, S. (2007) "Regions and Territories in Southern Central Asia: What the Surkhan Darya
Province Tells Us about Bactria," in Joe Cribb and Georgina Herrmann (eds.), After
Alexander: Central Asia Before Islam, 99-117. (Proceedings of the British Academy 133.)
Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy.
Wednesday 26th
No set reading.
Topic 8: Administrative Continuity in Achaemenid, Hellenistic and Kushan Bactria
Friday 28th
Shaked, S. (2004) Le satrape de Bactriane et son gouverneur: Documents araméens du IVe s.
avant notre ére provenant de Bactriane. (Persika 4.) Paris: de Boccard. [English translation of
excerpts will be made available.]
Monday 31st
Rapin, C. (1983) "Les inscriptions économiques de la trésorerie hellénistique d’Aï Khanoum
(Afghanistan)," Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 107, 315-381. [English translation of
excerpts will be made available.]
November
Wednesday 2nd
Rea, J., R. C. Senior and A. S. Hollis (1994) "A Tax Receipt from Hellenistic Bactria,"
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 104, 261-280.
Clarysse, W. and D. J. Thompson (2007) "Two Greek Texts on Skin from Hellenistic
Bactria," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 159, 273-279.
Topic 9: Kanishka the Great and the Kushans
Friday 4th
Harmatta, J., B. N. Puri and G. F. Etemadi eds. (1994) History of the Civilizations of Central
Asia. Vol. 2, The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D.
250. Paris: UNESCO. Chapter 11, The Kushans.
Monday 7th
Wednesday 9th
Sims-Williams, N. and J. Cribb (1996) "A New Bactrian Inscription of Kanishka the Great,"
Silk Road Art and Archaeology 4, 75-142. [Skip philological commentary (bulk of article)
and confine reading to inscription translation and historical remarks.]
Fraser, P. M. (1982) "Palamedes at Bağlan," Afghan Studies 3/4, 77-78.
Topic 10: Greeks, Indians, Hellenised Indians and Indo-Greeks
Friday 11th
Monday 14th
Karttunen, K. (1997) India and the Hellenistic World. (Studia Orientalia 83.) Helsinki:
Finnish Oriental Society. Chapter 3: Ancient Diplomacy.
Thapar, R. (1997) Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas. Revised edition. Delhi; Oxford:
Oxford University Press. Chapter 1: The Background and the Sources.
Wednesday 16th
Callieri, P. (1995) "The North-West of the Indian subcontinent in the Indo-Greek period. The
archaeological evidence," in A. Invernizzi (eds.), In the Land of the Gryphons: Papers on
Central Asian Archaeology in Antiquity, 293-308. (Monografie di Mesopotamia 5.) Firenze:
Casa Editrice Le Lettere.
Rapin, C. (1995) "Hinduism in the Indo-Greek Area: Notes on Some Indian Finds from
Bactria and on Two Temples in Taxila," in A. Invernizzi (eds.), In the Land of the Gryphons:
Papers on Central Asian Archaeology in Antiquity, 275-291. (Monografie di Mesopotamia 5.)
Firenze: Casa Editrice Le Lettere.
Topic 11: Gandhara and Graeco-Buddhist Art
This topic will be taught mostly using catalogue images, and museum visits if possible (to be
confirmed).
Friday 18th
Errington, E. A. and J. Cribb eds. (1992) The Crossroads of Asia: Transformation in Image
and Symbol in the Art of Ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan. Cambridge: Ancient Iran and
India Trust. [Museum catalogue, for reference.]
Monday 21st
Khan, N. A. (1990) "A New Relief from Gandhāra Depicting the Trojan Horse," East and
West 40, 315-319.
Wednesday 23rd
Thanksgiving recess. No classes.
Friday 25th
Thanksgiving recess. No classes.
Topic 12: Archaeology, War, Politics and Cultural Heritage, c. 1922-2011
Monday 28th
Wednesday 30th
Olivier-Utard, F. (1997) Politique et archéologie: Histoire de la Délégation archéologique
française en Afghanistan (1922-1982). Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations.
[Translated excerpts will be made available.]
December
Friday 2nd
The following are museum/exhibition catalogues (relevant pieces/captions will be gone
through in class, but participants may peruse in advance if they wish):
Hiebert, F. and P. Cambon eds. (2008) Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National
Museum, Kabul. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic. [Other editions of this catalogue
are available, from the exhibitions in Paris, London, etc.]
Tissot, F. eds. (2006) Catalogue of the National Museum of Afghanistan, 1931-1985. (Arts,
Museums and Monuments Series.) Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Monday 5th
Lecuyot, G. and O. Ishizawa (2006) "NHK, Taisei, CNRS: a Franco-Japanese collaboration
for the 3D Reconstruction of the Town of Aï Khanoum in Afghanistan," in Robert
Vergniquex and Caroline Delevoie (eds.), Virtual Retrospect 2005: Proceedings of the
conference Virtual Retrospect 2005 / Actes du colloque Virtual Retrospect 2005, 121-124.
Bordeaux: Editions Ausonius. [Or just search for ‘Ai Khanoum 3D’ on YouTube to see
excerpts from the original documentary.]
Wednesday 7th
Friday 9th
Monday 12th
General discussion, review, and presentations.